Presenter Information

Location

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Start Date

20-3-2015 3:45 PM

End Date

20-3-2015 4:15 PM

Description

This presentation examines the possible "legal defense" of claiming that brain trauma caused by sports-related concussions should be permitted to be invoked as a mitigating factor in cases accusing football players of committing violent crimes. With scientific advances in neurological studies, concussion-related brain trauma, in particular CTE, has been linked to professional football players engaging in violent crimes "off the field" of play. This analysis will explore the previous uses of this argument in defense of violent crime allegations, and weigh their legal efficacy (or not) via the invocation of the "temporary insanity" defense, among other defenses invoked by both professional football players (as well as non-athletes) accused of similar violent crimes.

Speaker Information

Peter A. Carfagna serves as Executive in Residence at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and as Distinguished Visiting Practitioner at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Through that dual Appointment, he serves as the Co-Director of the Great Lakes Entertainment and Sports Law Academy. Peter is Chairman/CEO of Magis, LLC, a privately owned sports marketing, management and investment company, including family ownership of the Lake County Captains, Cleveland Indians Class A Affiliate. Peter previously served as Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel of International Management Group (IMG), before which he was a Partner at Jones Day.

He also teaches courses relating to sports law and marketing as a Visitor at Harvard Law School, and the University of Miami Law School.

Peter currently offers his "Representing the Professional Athlete" course on Coursera as a massive open online course, which is sponsored by Case Western Reserve University's School of Law.

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The Possible Use of Sports-Related Concussion "Brain Trauma" as a Legal Defense for Violent Crimes Committed by Professional Football Players

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

This presentation examines the possible "legal defense" of claiming that brain trauma caused by sports-related concussions should be permitted to be invoked as a mitigating factor in cases accusing football players of committing violent crimes. With scientific advances in neurological studies, concussion-related brain trauma, in particular CTE, has been linked to professional football players engaging in violent crimes "off the field" of play. This analysis will explore the previous uses of this argument in defense of violent crime allegations, and weigh their legal efficacy (or not) via the invocation of the "temporary insanity" defense, among other defenses invoked by both professional football players (as well as non-athletes) accused of similar violent crimes.